The subject equine training apparatus falls loosely into the category of tack known as martingales. A martingale is a piece of equipment that keeps a horse from raising its head too high. Various styles can be used as a control measure, to prevent the horse from avoiding rider commands by raising its head out of position; or as a safety measure to keep the horse from tossing its head high or hard enough to strike its rider in the face. They are permitted in many types of competition, especially those where speed or jumping may be required.
Martingales are attached to the horse's body in one of two ways. They are either attached to the center chest ring of a breastplate (also known as a breastcollar, breaststrap and breastgirth) or, if no breastplate is worn, they are attached by two straps, one that goes around the horse's neck, and the other that attaches to the girth, with the martingale itself beginning at the point in the center of the chest where the neck and girth straps intersect.
The other end of a martingale is attached to the horse's head in two ways, depending upon whether the martingale is a “running martingale” or a “standing martingale”.
A running martingale or “training fork” (Western) has two strips of leather with O-rings at the ends through which the reins are threaded. When the head is in a normal position, the reins form a straight line from the bit, through the rings to the rider's hands. A running martingale discourages a horse from raising his head too high and jutting his nose out to evade the bit's action, but also allows the horse freedom of movement when needed. Each rein runs through a ring, thus providing a point of leverage to aid in teaching the horse to yield to pressure from the rider's hands. If the horse raises his head above a certain point, the martingale restricts the movement of the reins, which in turn causes the bit to bear down on the bars of the horse's mouth. Rubber “stops” on the reins prevent the rings from sliding too far toward the bit, where they might get caught on fastenings. Another stop is placed where the martingale strap runs from the girth through the neck strap so that the martingale doesn't form a dangerous loop that the horse might put a foot through. A variation of the running martingale is illustrated and described in U.S. Pat. No. 773,015 issued to Kenny in 1904. Note that the reins are attached to a halter rather than the bit rings, however.
A standing martingale (or “tie down” in western riding) is intended primarily to prevent the horse from flipping its head up when asked to abruptly stop or turn in speed events and is comprised of a single strap that attaches to the girth, passes between the horse's front legs and is fixed to the back of a noseband or cavesson of a bridle under the horse's jaw. To prevent it from catching on other objects, it is also used in conjunction with a neck strap or breast plate. The standing martingale acts on the horse's nose (rather than its mouth through the bit) and creates an absolute limit to how high a horse can raise its head. Being a set length, it doesn't have any “give.” Standard adjustment of a standing martingale allows enough slack to bring the strap to the horse's throatlatch when the animal has its head in a relaxed, natural position, although its western counterpart, the tiedown, is adjusted much shorter. If the horse attempts to throw his head up in the air, he reaches the end of the slack in the martingale which prevents further lifting movement. Unlike the running martingale, it limits the freedom of the horse's head, no matter how long or short the reins may be. The harness of Baikie described in U.S. Pat. No. 434,421 which was issued in 1890 resembles a conventional tie down.
There exist several other variations of martingales in the prior art. The German Martingale, for instance, and also called a Market Harborough, consists of a split fork that comes up from the chest, runs through the rings of the bit and attaches to rings on the reins of the bridle between the bit and the rider's hand. It acts in a manner similar to a running martingale, but with greater leverage. It is not show legal and is used primarily as a training aid.
The Chambon runs from the girth, forks about half way, continues through rings on either side of the horse's head at the base of the ears and then follows the direction of the cheek pieces and is attached to the bit ring. The Chambon is said to achieve great vertical flexion with little pressure on the reins. U.S. Pat. No. 4,214,420 issued to Ferree in 1980 teaches a harness device substantially similar to the Chambon.
The de Gogue is a training device based on the theory that unschooled horses have three points of resistance: the poll, the mouth, and the base of the neck. The de Gogue is a triangular system to release that tension and is made of a leather or nylon strap with cords attached. These cords fork at the horse's chest and each run through one of the bit rings. The cord then follows the cheekpiece of the bridle up to a ring or pulley at the side of the browband, before going back down to snap to the leather piece near the chest. The Gogue is essentially an adaptation of the Chambon.
The following additional U.S. patents and applications relating to equine training aids and the like are incorporated herein by reference: U.S. Pat. No. 69,106 entitled Safety Bridle; U.S. Pat. No. 369,294 entitled Device for Preventing Horses from Kicking; U.S. Pat. No. 434,421 entitled Harness; U.S. Pat. No. 647,102 entitled Anti-Jumping Strap; U.S. Pat. No. 773,015 entitled Martingale; U.S. Pat. No. 1,572,506 entitled Controlling Rein; U.S. Pat. No. 1,582,635 entitled Polo Bridle; U.S. Pat. No. 3,657,863 entitled Bosal Device; U.S. Pat. No. 3,906,707 entitled Horse Tie Down; U.S. Pat. No. 4,214,420 entitled Harness Device; U.S. Pat. No. 4,453,371 entitled Harness for a Horse; U.S. Pat. No. 4,495,753 entitled Control Halter; and U.S. Pat. No. 6,349,527 entitled Equestrian Training Device. While many devices of the prior art are intended to control a horse's head movement using force delivered to the mouth (in either direct or leveraged fashion), and other devices of the prior art are intended to control a horse's head movement using force to the nose, none of the above references teach or suggest an equine training apparatus designed to divide a pulling force delivered through the reins into two cooperating sub-forces, namely a first sub-force delivered to the horse's mouth (in either direct or leveraged fashion depending on the height of the horse's head), and a second sub-force delivered to the horse's nose (which is always delivered indirectly through a floating pivot system.
All patents, patent applications, provisional applications, and publications referred to or cited herein, or from which a claim for benefit of priority has been made, are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety to the extent they are not inconsistent with the explicit teachings of this specification.